Sinhagad - Rajgad - Torna 

12th Nov - 13th Nov 2016

Every person has a dream in life and tries hard to complete. I always wanted to be part of something that will give me a lifelong experience, in today's world of urban lifestyle and work culture everyone looks for some space away from all this. And this one is my space, go take a hike in nature's paradise.

This is about recent range trek I experienced to Sinhagad – Rajgad – Torna and thanks to SG trekkers for having this planned. Mr Vishal Kakade, a trek leader is been a young energetic person throughout. The team had 8 of us from different fields and different locations as well.

The Journey started on early morning of Saturday 12th Nov'16 near Shaniwar Wada in Pune by public transport (PMT) vehicle to Sinhagad base village named Aatkarwadi. After paying condolence to Sir N. K. Mahajan (known as Aabasaheb) for few minutes for his journey and dedication towards hiking and sports, we started climb to The Lion's Fort Sinhagad. It took us 50-60 minutes to climb and reach at Entrance of the Fort Sinhagad. During a breakfast, we were entertained by Marathi Powada young Artists who narrated a poetic story of Sinhagad about Tanaji Malusare (A brave leader of Maratha Army who gave his life for his king Maharaj Shivaji Bhosale during war at Sinhagad, which is named as Sinhagad after Tanaji Malusare, previously called as Kondhana).

Kalyan Darwaja

Towards Rajgad

After breakfast, we started our expedition towards Fort Rajgad via Kalyan Darwaja   (Sinhagad). A walk over the paths of small mountains range of Sahyadri made everyone exhaust and joyous at same time. An unfortunate incident happened during Sinhagad to Rajgad was only girl of the group fell down on face and got injured. But in-spite of her injury she showed utmost courage to continue journey without any regret, the bravest of all. We almost took night to reach base village of Rajgad called Gunjavane and had dinner at Hotel Sanjeevani.

Sinhagad to Rajgad

Every one of us was tired walking and crossing peaks & valleys of the Sinhagad to Rajgad track, but were happy to finish in time and on schedule. Previously it was planned to continue to the top of Rajgad and take a rest but we all decided to stay back at base and start early morning to climb Rajgad. So, we took a halt at Village temple and slept peacefully.

Sunrise at Suvela Machi 

With sound of alarm at 3:30 in morning everyone woke up and even had a small bonfire to warm up bodies from chilling winter. The climb to Rajgad started around 4:30-5:00 AM. On our way to top, we had nice views of sunrise at Suvela Machi which made us stop and capture few clicks. When we reach top through Chorta Darwaja (being small in size to enter it is named as Chorta Darwaja i.e. Small Entrance Door), we were welcomed by monkeys at Padmavati Machi. Everyone took a break and captured photos at Entrance, Padmavati lake, and at Flag on Entrance.

Reaching top makes everyone gain lost energy again to do journey ahead. We all had tea break at Padmavati Temple and wrapped up early, since we had to start towards Fort Torna. The Journey to Fort Torna started from Sanjeevani Machi and after few clicks at Fort Rajgad.

Rajgad (on far right) to Torna (on Left) 

Here starts the second part of our expedition, Rajgad to Torna. By now, the only (injured) girl from the group was back in form and started giving poses for selfies. While crossing Rajgad to Torna, there is a small house where we enjoyed our lunch (Khichadi). Being highest fort in Pune region (4603 ft.), Torna made everyone tired and took us whole day to complete. We reached at the Torna top by 6:00 PM in evening and also got to enjoy Sunset from highest fort of Pune. After a small tea break at Torna, we started descending towards base village Velhe. Around 9:00 at night we were eating our dinner at Torna base village Velhe and started our journey back to Pune.

It was an amazing journey from Sinhagad to Rajgad to Torna. Past two days of this range trek we experienced many parts of life; Joy, Pain, Journey, and most importantly a reason to live for exploring best part of Nature. It may have exhausted everyone of us, but at the end we were happy to finish it in two days and with 51kms of walk through the beautiful range of Sahyadris.

“We all have to follow our hearts and we did!”

Thanks to Vishal Kakade & SG trekkers.

Vishal Kakade

From Left to Right: Tausif, Vishal, Prashant (in white), Rupesh (in hat), Sachin Dagade, Smita (Brave Girl), Shivanand Gokhale, & Prajyesh.

THANK YOU!